When Warnings Come
by Katikinzz
Summary: The big dance is coming up and Helga wants nothing more than to go with the love of her life. But what happens when a random stranger appears with a warning?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1.

The gang was in the middle of their senior year of high school. Since fourth grade, they all had their fair share of love and loss. In the end, they all seemed to be with the person that Rhonda had guessed them to be with (in her original marriage predictor). If that makes sense. The rest of them met kids from other schools. There were two, however, despite all their relationships, who never actually found someone. Can you guess who?

He was the man of her dreams and she was the woman of his nightmares. Nonetheless, the one thing that I learned in high school, was that people change. People who are your friends in elementary school may not follow you through high school, and sometimes the people you hated, become your best friends. At this point, the two of them had a platonic relationship. They didn't hate each other, in fact, they didn't even really talk to each other. Helga had gotten rid of all of her Arnold paraphernalia but always held on to the dream of him. Arnold would look at her in the halls, but never at anyone else, almost as if he was still haunted by Rhonda's childhood predictions.

And then, there was the dance; the Valentine 's Day dance. It was a formal dance, and everyone was going… with their date. Gerald and Sid had asked Arnold about a hundred times: Who are you taking? He never had an answer. They suggested a few names of some of the underclassmen, but Arnold really wasn't interested. He knew that he wanted to go, but there really wasn't anyone he wanted to go with, especially since Lila already had a date.

Helga, who had since become friends with Rhonda, felt the exact same way. Even with weeks to go, she, Rhonda, Phoebe, and Nadine were on their way to go dress shopping. They were in the first store, Kacie's and Rhonda was just about to try on her fourth dress. It was floor length, probably better suited as a prom dress, and it was metallic red. She walked out of the dressing room to show the others as it tails behind her. "So what do you think? I'm a bit partial to the designer but I feel like being charitable."

"Wow, Rhonda," Nadine commented. "I think that's the best one yet."

"Oh you're just saying that." Rhonda said a bit too rudely. "There is no way I can walk into a dance wearing a wow dress. That is simply not good enough. I need speechless. I need a dress that I can walk into that gym with and everyone around stops what they're doing and stares. Then when they are finally able to catch their breath, I want them to say 'that dress is a Rhonda Wellington-Lloyd dress and no one in any dress will ever be able to compare."

"How do they fit that all on the label." Helga joked as she shifted through dresses looking at the price tags.

"That's the thing, it has to be so amazing that there isn't a tag in the world good enough."

"Maybe you should have on tailored specifically for you." Phoebe asked her.

"I like to keep my options open. Give others a chance. Like I said, I'm being charitable." Rhonda mentioned generously.

"Yeah you're a real saint." Helga laughed. She picked out a dress of her own; a shorter one, pink, with multiple layers of fabric but no straps. She went in to change into it, but was immediately bombarded with the question of who she was going with. Of course, there was no answer. She has no idea.

"Hello guys." Phoebe's voice called from outside of the dressing room.

"What?" Helga asked as she walked out fully clothed in her pink dress.

Standing there was Gerald, Sid, and Arnold. They were talking with Phoebe, but at the sight of Helga their eyes suddenly switched focus.

Rhonda came out and noticed the boys staring. She smiled, thinking that the stares were for her. "I wasn't sure about this one, personally, but I am open to the idea of it now."

"Helga. You look amazing." Arnold finally said.

"Like I need your opinion." Helga mumbled. Even if she had gotten over her childhood obsession, she could never get over her childhood crush. She was then greeted by a reply of confused faced to which she answered sarcastically, "I said thanks for your opinion."

Phoebe, Rhonda and the guys moved to the side to give the two of them space. They had been planning this for a while. Both Arnold and Helga needed a date after all. May as well be each other.

"So, Helga, who are you going with to the dance?"

"Not that it's any of your business, football head, but I don't have a date."

"C'mon, Helga, can you be nice for a minute please?" Arnold begged.

"Fine. One minute. But I'm counting." Helga said as she grabbed out her phone and started a timer.

"Since neither of us has a date… Would it be so bad… I mean would you like to… I don't know… maybe... do you," Arnold stammered.

"Spit it out already. By the time you finish I'll be too old to get out of this dress."

"Helga!" Arnold answered with disappointment.

"Sorry." Helga answered. "One minute… Well I guess 20 seconds."

"Did you want to go to the dance with me?" Arnold finally says.

"Yeah." Helga agrees. Her voice, though monotone, covers the excitement of her childhood-self dying to come through, "sure. Pick me up at 6? Rhonda's having a pre-dance get together so we may as well go there for like half an hour, right?"

"Sounds great, Helga." Arnold says. He puts his hands together and walks back over to the guys. Helga instead walks back into the dressing room to take off her dress. As she walks into the stall she notices that she is no longer alone, but the person who she sees standing there could not possibly be standing there.

To be continued….


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

"Listen up." Helga starts, infuriated. "This is my dressing room. My clothes are in here. You better get out right now or I swear I'm gonna…"

"Helga, YOU have to listen to ME." The woman says. The woman is tall but not more than an inch or two taller than Helga and that is without the hot pink heels that encase her feet. She wears a dress with a black skirt and a pink upper half. Her hair is brown, but obviously dyed due to her blonde roots and eyebrows. She has it worn up in a ponytail with a pink hair-tie. Besides that, she is hardly a woman at all, instead she is more in her twenties, possibly a college student.

"Why should I listen to you?" Helga asks with her right hand placed firmly on her right hip. There is a slight pause and Helga drops her hand. "Hang on, lady, how do you know my name?"

"There isn't time for that now," The mysterious stranger comments. "All I came to tell you is that you cannot go to the dance with Arnold."

"Oh, yeah. And who are you to tell me I can't." Helga says enraged again. "Who do you think you are? My mom?"

"I'm not your mom but I am a lot wiser than you are, Helga."

"Yeah right." Helga rolls her eyes and crosses her arms. "Now tell me how you know who I am."

"I told you, there's no time for that. I have to go."

And the woman runs out before Helga could even think of something else to say. Helga stands there for a minute in shock almost as if she expects the woman to come back. When it is clear that the woman has left for good, Helga closes the door and finally starts changing into her regular clothes. She hears footsteps and she immediately stops moving, her breaths slowing to a quick halt.

"Helga?" Rhonda's voice calls out and Helga can breathe again. "How long could it take you to change? You're starting to get more like me after all."

"Don't flatter yourself, princess." Helga says as she slips her sweater over her head. "But out of curiosity. Did you happen to see anyone come out of the dressing room?"

"I don't understand what you're going on about Helga. It's only me, you, Nadine, and Phoebe. The boys already left and no one has even been near our section. So no, Helga, I have not seen anyone leave." Rhonda says as she begins to change into her own normal attire. "Sometimes I don't understand you."

Helga, who is now completely changed, stands still yet again in the dressing room, thinking about the mysterious girl. She hopes that maybe she can find some familiarity in her but no matter how hard she thinks, the woman is still just as much a stranger as before. And why wouldn't she want Helga to go out with Arnold. And then she thinks that maybe she had made it all up in her head. After all, Rhonda had been standing in the doorway and had not seen a thing. Helga then decides to shrug it off and she opens the door simultaneously with Rhonda. As she does, Phoebe and Nadine bombard them with questions about whether or not they are going to get the dresses. Helga decides to get it for the sole purpose of not having to try on any more, besides Arnold seemed to like it so why not. Rhonda, on the other hand, decides not to get hers because she does not believe she has found the right one yet.

On the way to the register, a girl from their class, Gretchen comes over. Gretchen, if you didn't know, is a shorter girl with extremely curly/frizzy brown hair and glasses. Due to her competitive wit, she and Phoebe had become good friends over the years, especially since the creation of a debate team. Anyway, Gretchen stops and looks at girls. She points at Helga's dress and says, "Hey Helga, are you sure you want to buy that?"

"Excuse me." Helga says. How dare anyone tell her what to do.

"I'm sorry," Gretchen continues. "What I meant is: do you really want to wear a dress that Arnold's already seen."

"What does it mean to you?" Helga asks. Helga had been sore lately about how much time Gretchen had spent with Phoebe.

"Well, I know brides don't like to have their grooms see them before the wedding, so I figured…"

"Geez," Helga interrupts. "I'm not marrying the kid. We're just going to a dance."

"I know and maybe I shouldn't have said anything. I just figured," Gretchen was starting to get nervous. She had thought out everything in her head, but was just not very good at bringing it out. Unlike Helga, she wanted to be friends.

"Maybe you shouldn't have said anything."

"Can you please give me a chance? I have a point, I promise."

"Well than get to it." Helga pulls out her phone and once again starts the timer. "You have one minute. Go."

"I just figured that maybe you would want to amaze him. You know go out there in some spectacular dress that he has never seen and wow him over. He's already seen that dress. You need to find a new, better one." Gretchen begins to take out her own phone. "I saw a girl walk by with a dress that I thought would look great on you. That's the only reason I said anything. I thought I had a picture of it. Maybe I forgot to save it, but it was pink on the top, about here." Gretchen started gesturing to herself to show Helga where and what she was talking about. "And the rest was black and looked a bit like this. I'm sorry, I thought I had a picture but I guess not. Sorry for wasting your time."

"Wait!" Helga says, her tone completely changing. "What did this girl look like?"

"Dyed brown hair. Very pretty. And she wore these nice hot pink heels." Gretchen said. "I'm sorry that's all I remember."

Helga thinks to herself: _Maybe it did happen._


End file.
